- Goal based investing by women
- Gender gap in AMCs
- Stress test of mutual fund scheme
Watch Tamanna Inamdar in conversation with Edelweiss Mutual Fund's Radhika Gupta.
- Gender gap in AMCs
- Stress test of mutual fund scheme
Watch Tamanna Inamdar in conversation with Edelweiss Mutual Fund's Radhika Gupta.
Category
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TVTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Welcome.
00:09 You're watching the Mutual Fund Show.
00:11 I'm Tamannah Anamdar.
00:12 And today, we are highlighting and wishing our viewers
00:15 a very happy Women's Day.
00:18 We're celebrating this day by also
00:20 focusing on the financial health of women all over the country.
00:26 Now, mutual funds have become a very important vehicle
00:29 for women to achieve financial independence,
00:31 no matter what their circumstances are.
00:34 But when we're talking about financial health and women,
00:37 it's also important to understand the outlook women
00:40 have towards their investment.
00:41 So an interesting study we came across by FinEdge,
00:45 which says there is a growing trend of financial awareness
00:48 among women.
00:49 Many of them are engaged in goal-based investing.
00:53 And as much as 44% of those surveyed
00:57 prioritize retirement planning, while 34% allocate funds
01:01 for their children's education.
01:03 39% start investing in their 20s and 41% in their 30s.
01:08 Now, we wanted to start off the show.
01:10 And we must tell you, we have a very special guest today
01:12 on the show.
01:13 We're going to be speaking with Radhika Gupta of Edelweiss.
01:16 But I wanted to start off with the basics.
01:19 We assume that everyone knows it's
01:21 a no-brainer of how you should invest in mutual funds.
01:24 That's not necessarily the case.
01:28 So my colleague Tanvi Dhote has put together this report
01:31 to guide you on how to start your mutual fund journey.
01:37 Financial independence.
01:39 These two words can fulfill the dreams of so many women
01:42 across the globe.
01:43 And one of the easiest ways to achieve financial independence
01:47 is by investing in mutual funds.
01:50 This Women's Day, why not begin our journey
01:53 towards financial independence?
01:55 Without further ado, let's get started.
01:58 Step one, figure out your financial goals,
02:01 whether you wish to buy a house by the time you're 38
02:04 or wish to create a retirement fund.
02:07 Step two, understanding your risk appetite.
02:11 Investment advisors usually suggest
02:13 people who are 35 years or younger
02:16 to invest in more equity-based mutual funds
02:19 and less in debt funds or fixed income sources
02:23 since this age group has lesser liabilities
02:25 and a higher risk appetite.
02:28 As you grow older or if you're in your late 50s,
02:31 then it's better to stick to more debt funds
02:33 and fixed deposit strategies
02:35 and reduce equity in your portfolio.
02:38 Step three, offline or online investing.
02:42 You need to choose whether you plan to invest
02:44 online or offline.
02:46 You can find plenty of platforms like Grow or Zerodha
02:50 or even mutual fund house platforms
02:53 that will help you invest in mere minutes
02:56 or you can reach out to a SEBI-registered
02:58 investment advisor offline.
03:01 Both online and offline require you to submit
03:04 scanned documents like your PAN card and Aadhaar card
03:08 along with your bank statements.
03:10 Next, you need to link your bank account to the platform.
03:13 Initiate the investment process by selecting a mutual fund,
03:17 transfer the amount you wish to invest
03:19 as a one-time payment or SIP
03:22 and then keep track of your investments online.
03:25 As you gain more understanding about mutual funds,
03:29 you can make changes to your portfolio.
03:31 Do make a note that investing offline is time-consuming
03:36 since offline investing will require you to fill out
03:39 physical forms each time you invest in a new mutual fund
03:43 or change any other details.
03:45 There you go, you are now all set to start
03:48 your mutual fund investment journey.
03:50 And if you still have some doubts running in your head,
03:53 don't forget to send us your queries
03:55 to the Mutual Fund Show only on NDTV Profit.
03:59 - All right, so that was your ABC of, you know,
04:05 how to begin your investment journey.
04:06 And frankly, that advice is for you,
04:08 whether you're a man, woman, for everyone.
04:10 But to speak more on this and because today
04:13 we also want to focus on women's participation
04:17 in the markets in mutual funds and in the industry,
04:20 I'm speaking with Radhika Gupta,
04:22 MD and CEO of Edelweiss Mutual Fund.
04:25 Radhika, thank you so much for joining us.
04:27 Always, always a pleasure to speak with you.
04:30 You know, I want to understand
04:32 whether this has now become more of a norm,
04:37 women mutual fund managers,
04:39 more women participating in the mutual fund boom,
04:43 or is this something just in our perception?
04:45 What's the ground reality in your view?
04:47 - I think it's a little mixed
04:49 and you have to separate the two issues.
04:51 One is women participating in capital markets and funds.
04:55 And one is women, you know, being employees
04:59 and being fund managers and CEOs
05:02 and all of that in the industry.
05:04 I think on the first one, which is women investing,
05:06 we have made a lot of progress.
05:08 I agree with a lot of the introductory comments,
05:11 you know, today's young millennial
05:13 or Gen Z female investor
05:16 is part of a lot more of an aspirational India.
05:20 She is increasingly working,
05:22 this whole concept of Atma Nirbharta
05:24 and financial independence is important.
05:26 And there are both women financial advisors,
05:29 platforms, women-focused conversations.
05:32 So increasingly, even if you look at the data
05:34 that Amphi is releasing,
05:36 young women investors are a very fast growing lot.
05:40 And I think that is very encouraging data.
05:42 And from all the data I see,
05:44 they also tend to be a pretty responsible lot
05:46 in terms of their investing patterns
05:48 and I can share some data with you.
05:50 So I think on that front, you know,
05:51 we are making progress
05:52 and we will continue to make progress.
05:55 So on the second front,
05:57 I think we've made a little less progress.
05:58 I mean, I always quote the number
06:01 that if you look at 45 asset management companies
06:05 between the core leadership roles of CEO, CIO, COO,
06:09 all these five, six roles,
06:11 you should have about 300 positions in leadership.
06:14 I doubt even 10 of them, 10, 15 of them are filled by women.
06:18 So on that front,
06:19 I don't think we've made as much progress as we should have.
06:22 It's ironic because if you look at the banking industry
06:25 in our country, at some point,
06:26 a lot of the country's banking assets were run by women.
06:30 That hasn't translated as well to women fund managers
06:34 and women in the asset management industry.
06:37 - In fact, I was just looking at this data
06:40 and we'll play out a report by my colleague,
06:42 Saloni Kothari in a bit.
06:43 But this Morningstar report says
06:46 that among total managers of 473,
06:50 this is the women fund managers report 2024,
06:54 out of 473 managers in all, 42 are women,
06:57 while 431 are men.
06:59 Only 8.88%.
07:03 All right, let me just round it off to 9%
07:05 of fund managers are women.
07:07 The total assets managed by women is 6.66 lakh crores,
07:11 which is only about 12, 13% of overall assets.
07:15 I want to understand the whys of it, Radhika,
07:18 because it's not as if there are too few women
07:21 going into the pipeline of the financial industry,
07:25 or those who are graduating from colleges, et cetera.
07:28 Those numbers aren't that skewed.
07:31 And you're talking about the CIO, CXO level,
07:34 but even at the fund manager level,
07:36 there's such a huge gap.
07:37 - It is, but I should, I mean, I'll come to the why of it,
07:41 but I should make a point here that every year
07:45 on Women's Day, I see these reports
07:46 about women fund managers.
07:48 When you do reports on the asset management industry,
07:51 I would encourage everyone to do reports
07:53 on asset management companies as a whole,
07:56 because with due regard to fund managers,
07:58 an asset management company is not just made
08:00 by investment professionals,
08:02 it's made by the people who sell on the ground,
08:04 it's made by the people who manage money,
08:06 the people who go crazy to service that money,
08:08 the people who launch products,
08:09 and women are unrepresented across the spectrum.
08:12 So I don't know why we call out
08:14 only fund managers every year.
08:15 I find it a little bit bizarre.
08:18 Now, as far as why, I think there are a few reasons.
08:23 One is if you look at the origins of fund management,
08:26 it was largely capital markets,
08:27 and the last street and the popular perception
08:31 tends to be a little alpha male.
08:34 So I think that it just is,
08:37 you go watch a movie called "Bazaar" in Hindi,
08:42 or a movie called "Wolf of Wall Street" in English,
08:45 and you'll start to see half the problem,
08:47 because where do fund managers come from?
08:49 They come from capital markets,
08:50 and I think that is the difference.
08:53 Women bankers still are represented very differently,
08:55 but capital markets is just presented
08:58 in a very, very different way.
09:00 I don't think the pipeline's as good
09:02 as you make it out to be.
09:03 I mean, even when we try and hire,
09:05 and we are an AMC with four women CXOs
09:08 and 32% women overall,
09:10 so we hit the mark on many stats.
09:13 Even when we try and go out and hire women fund managers,
09:16 the pipeline is not very large.
09:19 It's probably better at an analyst level,
09:21 but there's a lot of dropout in the 30s and 40s.
09:25 So even just the pipeline to choose
09:27 at the fund management level is not that high.
09:31 - That's unfortunate if the pipeline is not that high,
09:34 because I think, I don't know if you need
09:37 an alpha kind of a personality or--
09:40 - No, don't.
09:41 - The assumption that women can't have
09:43 that alpha personality, it's all very skewed.
09:45 So I'm sure it will change soon.
09:49 But since I have you here, Radhika Gupta,
09:52 I must ask you about what's happening
09:53 in the industry right now.
09:55 And for the entire space, it's a time of flux,
09:59 I would say in a sense,
10:01 Amphi is coming down, of course, guided by SEBI
10:04 on the kinds of investments going into small and mid cap.
10:07 The idea broadly is to protect investors.
10:10 How do you see these developments?
10:12 And are we seeing a situation now
10:15 that AMCs have to rejig their investments
10:20 to stay in line with what the directions are?
10:22 Is there a lack of clarity
10:23 or are you clear now on what comes next?
10:27 - So I think we're clear on what we have to do.
10:28 In fact, before this conversation,
10:29 I was reviewing the mid and small cap disclosures
10:32 for our own AMC in a meeting
10:34 because they have to be out on 15th March,
10:36 if I'm not wrong.
10:37 Look, I think what Amphi and SEBI are doing is prudent.
10:41 A lot of money has come into a certain category.
10:44 It is a higher risk category.
10:47 And the last thing you want is that all this money
10:50 comes into the category
10:51 and you have an unforeseen situation around liquidity.
10:55 We actually welcome this move
10:56 because we've always believed in our own funds
10:59 that liquidity is of prime importance.
11:01 In fact, we published this information
11:03 in our present sheet, presentations and fact sheets.
11:06 And there is nothing wrong with taking any kind of risk.
11:09 As long as you're taking that risk with your eyes open.
11:12 I've increasingly worried that so much money
11:14 that comes into the industry and into mid and small caps
11:17 is one year performance chasing.
11:20 Literally you will have the top performing small cap fund
11:23 in the charts and people will just flock to it.
11:26 The reality is 50, 60% returns in one year
11:29 don't repeat themselves.
11:31 It's not sustainable.
11:32 So I think the best thing,
11:34 and SEBI on Amphi is not coming out and saying,
11:38 stop flows into small cap funds, don't invest.
11:41 They're just saying,
11:42 this is the data, invest with your eyes open, buyer beware.
11:46 And I think the data is not going to,
11:48 I mean, I looked at the data for our own fund house
11:51 and it doesn't look scary at all.
11:53 There's no rejigging that we need to do.
11:55 So it is business as usual.
11:56 And if you paid attention to liquidity,
11:59 I don't think the disclosures and the action
12:02 is going to require anything.
12:04 If you didn't, then I think it will require some attention,
12:07 but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
12:10 - Yeah, so just to get your view on this,
12:12 Radhika, we put out a story about the circular
12:17 that Amphi has sent to mutual fund trustees
12:19 to conduct stress tests, like you said,
12:21 for the 15th of March.
12:23 And the parameters there were MFs to assume
12:26 peak traded volume at three times daily average,
12:29 to assume 10% participation of peak daily volumes,
12:32 liquidity based on days taken to sell stocks
12:35 at 10% participation,
12:37 and mutual funds to calculate liquidity
12:39 based on top 80 most liquid stocks.
12:42 You also have to disclose liquidity of 25%
12:45 and 50% of the portfolio.
12:47 Is this on the lines of what you have received?
12:51 Can we confirm that with you?
12:53 And is this doable?
12:55 - It's fairly accurate.
12:56 And as I said, I just saw the disclosures
12:58 for our own fund house about half an hour ago.
13:01 In fact, I would argue the disclosure is a tad generous
13:05 because it's not 80, it's 80% of the portfolio
13:08 it lets you see.
13:09 So it lets you exclude 20% of the most illiquid
13:13 part of the portfolio.
13:15 So it's actually quite generous in a disclosure.
13:18 - Okay.
13:20 You know, just one more take on this
13:23 before we take a very short break, Radhika,
13:26 is for investors who are watching this
13:29 and who have bet on small and mid cap funds,
13:32 obviously because you have seen far superior returns.
13:35 What is the messaging going out for them?
13:37 Because many are perhaps wondering
13:39 whether you're going to see a bit of a downturn,
13:40 you're seeing pain points in the markets as well.
13:43 What would you say to them?
13:45 - So it's a great question
13:47 because I don't think the messaging also of this movement
13:49 should be mid caps and small caps are overvalued,
13:53 have a sense of panic.
13:54 I don't think that should be the messaging.
13:56 That's not the intent of the messaging.
13:59 The messaging should be one,
14:00 if you have put money into these categories
14:03 and they are great categories,
14:05 a lot of our portfolio is mid and small cap as well.
14:08 They're great categories for the future,
14:11 have realistic expectations when you put money.
14:13 I repeat the last one year number of any category
14:17 on the website these days looks like 50, 60%,
14:20 not sustainable.
14:21 Second is within the gambit of mid and small cap funds,
14:24 there is a certain degree of nuance.
14:26 It's like when you are looking at fixed income,
14:29 credit risk, liquidity risk matter.
14:31 When you're looking at mid cap funds,
14:32 there is something called concentration,
14:34 there is something called liquidity.
14:36 These are things that matter.
14:38 There is something called redemption risk.
14:40 So I think the idea is for people
14:42 to become more aware investors and to be,
14:45 I think it's good.
14:46 The more questions we ask before investing,
14:49 the less questions we'll have to ask after investing
14:52 and that's a better investing experience.
14:54 So I think that's the message.
14:55 It's not mid caps are overvalued,
14:57 don't invest in mid caps, go redeem your mid caps.
15:00 That should not be the message at all.
15:02 - Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
15:03 And that's important because that's where you're going
15:05 to see the growth coming in or in well-managed funds,
15:10 at least you definitely will.
15:12 Radhika, of course, we're talking,
15:15 Women's Day is special,
15:16 but I want to bring the focus on the sector,
15:19 the industry and also what's happening
15:21 in the markets right now with a slew of action
15:24 that we've seen from regulators,
15:26 whether it's IFL, it's JM Financial, Paytm before that,
15:31 a lot of focus on two things.
15:33 One, whether any of these stocks
15:36 are in mutual fund portfolios
15:38 from the investor point of view.
15:40 And also, what is the outlook on the financial sector?
15:44 Is the regulator going overboard
15:45 or is there really some things which need to be cleaned up?
15:49 I just wanted you to weigh in.
15:51 - Look, so I think whether the stocks
15:54 are in mutual fund portfolios,
15:56 I mean, the data is well known
15:58 and people will take individual stances
16:01 on individual companies.
16:03 And I think as far as mutual fund portfolios,
16:06 there often is too much scrutiny
16:08 because most mutual funds run
16:09 extremely diversified portfolios
16:12 where even if these stocks,
16:13 and I'm not talking about us,
16:15 were there, they're 2%, 3% weight.
16:17 So in financial services, regulatory action is a big one.
16:21 In pharma or in healthcare, FDA action is a big one.
16:24 So I think that risk exists
16:26 and you can't scrutinize mutual fund portfolios
16:29 with every stock,
16:30 so unless there's a really systemic problem.
16:33 As far as I think, and I won't go into companies,
16:36 but some of the regulatory action that you named,
16:40 I think that it has been a practice in financial service.
16:45 I mean, this sounds very obvious to say,
16:47 but the reality of running a financial services business
16:50 is that it is going to be highly regulated.
16:53 And the fact is world over in financial services,
16:57 regulatory intensity has only increased,
17:00 not decreased post 2008.
17:02 So I think that is the reality that we operate in
17:05 and all of us will have to up our standards of compliance,
17:08 whether we are in exchange,
17:10 whether we are a asset management company,
17:12 whether we are an NBFC or whether we are a FinTech.
17:15 And I also think from a startup point of view,
17:19 seeing startups in another role at Shark Tank,
17:23 I always say that if you're a startup
17:25 in the financial services space,
17:27 regulatory compliance is something
17:29 that you don't take risks with,
17:31 you don't even call it hygiene.
17:32 You always say, I want to ace regulation.
17:34 So that is my take on it.
17:36 It's part of doing business in this industry
17:38 and world over in financial services,
17:40 compliance will increase.
17:42 - Compliance will increase.
17:43 Then the natural question is why are there so many companies,
17:48 large storied companies and brands
17:51 being found falling short of compliance?
17:54 - It's a question that is difficult to answer.
17:59 It's a question that is difficult to answer.
18:01 I think one of the things that has happened
18:03 is that the quality of technology in our regulatory systems,
18:08 whether SEBI, RBI has really gone up.
18:10 And I mean, this is praise to our regulators
18:13 and perhaps it's a signal to industry
18:15 that we have to do as good a job.
18:17 You know, our regulators have not only caught up,
18:20 they're ahead of us in terms of the work on technology.
18:22 I know our SEBI chief keeps talking about
18:25 the power of data and the role of technology.
18:27 And I think some of the work they've done on Algos
18:30 has been outstanding.
18:32 And so perhaps that's why you're seeing that now,
18:35 before regulatory compliance was something
18:37 you caught in an inspection.
18:39 Now I think their access to data,
18:40 their Algos makes the ability to catch things
18:44 far quicker, almost live,
18:46 and with a lot of data to back up those answers.
18:49 So I think that is something that as an ecosystem,
18:51 we have to be increasingly more prepared for.
18:54 - Absolutely.
18:56 Thank you so much, Radhika Gupta for joining us today.
18:58 Fantastic having a conversation with you as always
19:01 and all days and not just on Women's Day,
19:04 but great to speak with you
19:06 and hope to have you back soon.
19:08 That's all the time we have on this edition
19:10 of the Mutual Fund Show,
19:11 but stay tuned, a lot more coming up on NDTV Profit.
19:14 (upbeat music)
19:17 (dramatic music)